


The Swamp

by sammylacutie



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: F/F, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Post Book 4, Romantic/Platonic up to you, The Swamp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-22
Updated: 2015-04-22
Packaged: 2018-03-25 06:54:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3800998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sammylacutie/pseuds/sammylacutie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Korra and Kuvira travel through the Foggy Swamp. One night Kuvira has an encounter of an illusion from someone in her past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Swamp

**Author's Note:**

> Okay I swear I thought this was going to be a short drabble. But then I added backstory and well…it got me over 500 words. Thank you to snailorlock (tumblr) for sending me the prompt. This fic was inspired by Geki’s (shingeki-no-korra-tumblr) fanart of Kuvira in the swamp. There are serval dark themes that occur in the fic.I believe I may have gone a bit overboard with some of them but I really wanted to write some drama and angst. Also I don’t know anything about politics.This is kinda weird publishing because I usually let my friend beta my stories before I release them but she’s not awake at the moment. So if it has grammar/spelling mistakes you know why. But anyway since you are the reader it’s up to you if believe what the vision says or not. Enjoy.

The cool breeze howled eerily through the thick trees of the vast swamp. Kuvira widened her eyes while she rubbed her arms as the wind passed. Even though she sat next to the fire the cold air still made her shiver. 

“Are you scared?” Kuvira looked up at the young woman who sat across from her. She rolled her eyes.  
“I’m not scared of the swamp Avatar.” Korra raised her eyebrow.  
“It’s nothing to be ashamed about. The swamp can be pretty scary at first. Trust me.” The memory of the illusion she had drowning in the liquid metal popped in her head. Even today the vision still got her shoken up at times. 

It had been four years since Kuvira’s attack on Republic City. Four years she’s been locked up in a wooden cell. Four years she had nothing to listen to but the loud thoughts in her mind. She was to be sentence for thirty years, but Korra was able to pull some strings for an early release. 

During the four years Korra worked hard on helping to create the United Earth Nation (U.E.N.). With the help from her colleagues and friends they were able to transform most of the Earth Empire from an dictatorship into a democracy. But not everyone accepted the change. Even after all these years there were still people out there who refused to be part of the U.E.N. Majority of these areas were on the eastern side of the continent. And those places were perfect for Kuvira to influence the people to change. Korra believed that Kuvira was an amazing influential person back when she was The Great Uniter. Korra believed that if the citizens of the Earth Empire listened to what Kuvira had to say they would start to transition, and hopefully become apart of the U.E.N. 

Back at the swamp Korra and Kuvira were traveling to all the different cities. Kuvira apologized to the towns she conquered and asked for forgiveness. Surprisingly most people did accept her apology but not everyone forgave her. They mostly traveled by walking. Sometimes they would ride in a the train or a cab but for the most of the time they were on foot. Cutting through the swamp was much faster than going around. The two were getting closer to the east coast. 

"You forgot that I've already been at the swamp."  
"I didn't forget. But you were at the heart of the swamp then. Usually the illusions happen away from the heart."  
"I don't believe in these "illusions". You were probably just tired and hungry."  
"Believe what you want Kuvira but trust me the swamp will make you see something."  
"That's enough. I'm going to bed. Good night." 

Kuvira got up from her place and rolled out her sleeping bag. She turned her back towards Korra and closed her eyes hoping sleep would come. 

~*~

It wasn't a shriek of an owl or wolfbat that woke her up. 

It was the sound of a soft chuckle she hadn't heard in seventeen long years. 

It was her mother's laugh. 

The familiar sound woke Kuvira up. The fire was out and she was surrounded by darkness; only the moon gave her a bit of light to see just a number of feet in front of her. She got up as she kept hearing the voice. Once fully standing she walked through the murky swamp to locate what she was hearing. 

"It's just an illusion. It's only an illusion." But still she kept going to find the source. 

As she walked further the voice became louder. Turning to the left Kuvira saw vines hanging down from a branch. Swiftly she pushed the vines to the side finally see what was making the noise. 

Her blood ran cold. She felt her heart drop. Her grip on the vines tightened, but not in anger, in fear. 

There standing in the middle of the shallow pound was her mother. She had jade colored eyes like her daughter. Her ebony hair was long and shiny. Her body tall and lengthy. She was covered in rich robes. 

"Hello Kuvira." 

A breath caught in Kuvira's throat. No noise came out. She froze up in terror. 

“I’m surprised you recognize me. I’m decorated with so many jewels.” She giggled and continued talking.  
“You see when you father and I “abandoned” you all those years ago. Well we didn’t technically abandon you. We sold you. Quite a load of money you were worth.” 

Kuvira shook her head trying to block out her voice. 

“No! T-that’s not true. You wouldn’t do that-”  
“Oh but we did. We never wanted you Kuvira. You were a mistake. You never were supposed to be born. You were so needy. You were a parasite. We never got a day to ourselves. So when the idea came around for selling you we went to the biggest buyer. She’s a very wealthy woman. Maybe you heard of her?”

Her eyes widened. She knew exactly what woman.  
“No! S-Suyin would never do such a thing. She found me! She found me all alone where you two left me.” 

Her mother simply shook her head. 

“Not at all. She was looking for a child anyway. She spent half a fortune on you. And what do you do in return? You took away her city. You took away her family. You killed her son.”  
“I didn’t kill Baatar! He lived! He lived! I-I did what I had to do to create order to the Earth Empire.” Guilt engulfed her as her mother kept talking.  
“Maybe you didn’t kill him. But you killed your father and I.” 

It seemed like time froze right then and there. 

“When we found out that you were leading the Earth Empire we knew that the public couldn’t know we were related to you. What would happen to us? What would happen to us because of you? We didn’t want to take any chances. We killed ourselves. We killed ourselves because of you.”

Before Kuvira could say anything her mother’s body lifted from the ground from a vine as it wrapped around her neck and pulled her away from the water. Kuvira screamed and only watched as her mother went higher and higher up as her body thrashed. 

And then nothing. There was no sound. Only the silence filled the air. 

She fell to her knees, the water making a splash sound as her body hit the pond. Tears fell down her face as gasps left her mouth. She cried and cried. She was the killer. She would always be a killer. 

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. D-don’t leave me alone. P-Please. I d-don’t want to be alone. I can’t stand it. Please I-” 

“Kuvira?” 

The earthbender gasped and turned her body. There standing at the edge of the pond was Korra. 

“N-no! Please. I’m a killer. I’m a killer.” Her blue eyes widened and approached Kuvira. The sound of water swooshed as she gained on Kuvira, who was still on her knees. 

“Kuvira...You’re not a killer-”  
“My parents killed themselves because of me. T-they took away their own lives because of me.” She point up to where her mother was dragged. Korra’s eyes wandered upward but only saw the branches and vines. 

“Kuvira what you saw was an illusion. It wasn’t real.”  
“B-but it felt so real. I saw her body. It-it broke.”  
“Shh. Kuvira the swamp does this to us. It plays tricks on us.” 

By this time Korra reached Kuvira. She gently took her by the arms and hoisted her up. Kuvira stood on wobbly legs and let Korra lead her out of the water. 

“The swamp shows us that we are connected to the people we lost. To the people we loved. We all are connected in some way shape or form. What you saw may had been your mother’s death. But you’re still connected to her. And who knows. Maybe her death wasn’t real. Perhaps it was apart of the illusio.” 

“They sold me.” Korra looked at Kuvira.  
“They sold me to Suyin.”  
“H-hey what did I just say? It was an illusion. Even what she said wasn’t true.”  
“But what if it is. What if they did sell me?!”  
“Kuvira! You need to calm down. You may never know the answer to that. But you can’t let that run your life. You can’t let this vision take over. You need to snap out of it.” 

Kuvira weakly nodded. Korra offered her a tiny smile. 

“You’re soaking wet. Come on I’ll get you warmed up.” Korra could have sworn she saw some pinkish color on Kuvira’s cheeks. 

The two made it back to the camp in a matter of minutes. Korra sat Kuvira down on a log and went to fetch some extra clothes. Kuvira looked down at her hands as she waited. Her boots and pants were soaked. She had on a short sleeve shirt on though making her shiver. 

She didn’t know what to believe. Was it all true what her mother said to her. Had she caused their deaths? Was she sold to Suyin? She swayed away thoughts. Korra was right. She couldn’t let this vision run her life. 

Korra returned with clothes. Simple blue pants, brown boots, and a wooly parka. She handed Kuvira the clothes. She muttered a thank you before standing up. Korra walked off a bit to grant her some privacy. 

Kuvira took off her boots and pants and replaced them with the ones Korra brought her. She then slipped on the jacket. She shivered still as a breeze went by.

“You can come back now.” 

The waterbender made her way back to fire pit. She took a stance and fire left her hands onto the wood. Korra dropped down onto the ground. Her head rolled up to meet Kuvira’s stare. She nodded her head gesturing to Kuvira to join her. The earthbender quietly sighed and joined the Avatar onto the floor of the swamp. 

“Thanks...For the clothes.” Korra shrugged.  
“No problem.” Very gently Korra took Kuvira’s hand. Startled Kuvira pulled her hand back.  
“Sorry. Look... I wanted tell you you’re not alone. You were mentioning that you didn’t want to be alone while you were in the pond.” Kuvira casted her eyes down at the fire. It crackled and sparked into the dark night. 

The two women sat in silence. Korra bit her lip. The warmth of the fire spread throughout the air. Some time had passed and Kuvira still had not responded to Korra, but when Korra was about to get up a hand grabbed her’s. She looked at Kuvira who was still staring at the fire. 

“Please…” She struggled to continue the words. She opened up her mouth but nothing came out. After a couple minutes she found her voice. 

“I don’t want to be alone anymore.” Korra smiled softly. Her brown hand squeezed the other girl’s hand. Kuvira grasped her hand back. 

The two didn’t say anything else for the rest of the night. They didn’t need to. Not too long afterwards sleep overtook them both. Korra laid on the ground and in her arms was Kuvira. 

It had been such a long time since Kuvira had this feeling. Before the years of her being a war criminal. Before the years of her being the leader of a rising empire. When things were simple. When she was just a normal girl. Not a dictator, not a guard, not anything. She was just Kuvira. The feeling of loneliness washed away as the new feeling rose upon her. The feeling of love wrapped around her as she slept in Korra’s embrace. 

For the first time in many nights Kuvira didn’t feel alone anymore.


End file.
